I am in St. Augustine, Florida and it is hot. It must be a gazillion degrees in the summer here. This is the oldest continually inhabited city in the United States, and it is a pretty cute, but also extremely touristy, town. Basically I wanted to come here for a couple of days and not do anything, so that is what I am doing – not anything. Except walking around, reading, and sleeping. And drinking wine, of course, though so far I have not had too much good to eat. In fact I have mainly bad meals here, including one that I would have to say was the worst thing I have eaten since I was in another tourist land – Honfleur, in Normandy, France.

More about that later. I am staying at a cool, funky hostel with private rooms called the Pirate Haus. My room has one big bed and four bunks. The owner, Conrad, is a really cool guy who offers up wine, grappa and cognac, and last night we watched the City of Lost Children in the living room. They also have Bravo, so I get to watch Top Chef tonight! Unless someone else beats me to the remote.

I don’t really care about going out too much here – I like sitting on the roof deck (it sounds a lot more glamorous than it is, but it is perfect for me at this moment) with a glass of wine and a book, totally alone but with the sounds and smells of the other guests cooking on the other side of the kitchen window.

I feel comfortable at the Pirate Haus. I would definitely come back here, and could even bring friends since there are five beds in the room. At night it cools down and I open the window in my room all the way and listen to music on my little speakers. The night air here is sultry.

Tomorrow I head to Savannah for the Big Slowtrav Gathering, where I will see a bunch of my friends, and see another new place. I will try to check in from there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Tales from a Strange Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.